


day 27: a brisk jog down memory lane

by halfwheeze



Series: thirty ways to wreck a train [27]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Phone Call Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 03:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14227992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: shane calls ryan from three thousand miles away; he feels like he's right there.





	day 27: a brisk jog down memory lane

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is day twenty-seven of a 30-day series I'm trying out! I can't say that I'll be fantastic at it, but I'm gonna try!
> 
> day twenty-seven is memories! hope you enjoy!

He doesn’t mean to go moseying through his phone’s ample gallery, doesn’t really think of it before it’s already happening, but he does it anyway. He’s always been a folders guy, likes being able to find specifically the kind of picture he’s looking for, and he doesn’t mean to look through the folder titled  _ package deal  _ specifically, but that’s what he ends up looking through. Ryan titled the folder with a grin and a sly comment of  _ that was one of the weirdest things you’ve ever said _ , handing him back his phone with just the barest electric touch of fingers. Ryan always did that thing where anything involving him had to be titled by him, or edited by him or something to that effect, and Shane grins looking at it now. He wants Ryan to come home. He should call him. 

“Hello?” Ryan answers the phone, soft voiced and sleeping, and Shane remembers suddenly the time difference between New York and Los Angeles; it’s already almost midnight for Ryan. “You there, Shane?” he says after, sounding more readily fond and awake. Shane grins, feeling softer just for Ryan having spoken, feeling calmer and more together. He feels like he’s been half strung out since Ryan went to work in New York for the month for a project, especially since one month has turned to two and Ryan won’t be coming home for another three weeks, now. Ryan is his best friend, and it feels like there’s a hole in his side where Ryan should be leaning against him and having a laugh. 

“I’m here. Forgot about the time difference. How’s your day?” he asks, his voice softer than he means it to be, but that’s often true when he’s talking to Ryan. Ryan makes him a lot of things, and makes him not be an even longer list of things, and Shane’s not mad about any of it. Ryan launches into a vivid description of his day, of the projects he’s working on and the locations on the east coast that he keeps getting recommended for Unsolved; Shane just listens. He feels so soft in the light of his bedside table, just talking to Ryan and breathing in the fact that he can hear his voice, can hear how excited he sounds just to talk to Shane. He has his headphones plugged into his phone, so he just slides down and lays out flat, closing his eyes to listen to Ryan describe his day. 

“What about you, Shay? How’s life without me?” Ryan asks, affectionate and apparently amused by Shane’s silence. Shane considers the question for a moment before landing on the only solid answer: really, just the truth. 

“Boring. I’m bored. Remember that time we tried to convince the rest of the team that Disneyland was haunted? That was a fucking riot,” Shane reminisces, and hearing Ryan laugh is so worth this entire phone call. They’ve talked sporadically since Ryan left, but not nearly enough, not nearly so much as it always feels like they should to Shane. 

“That was funny. I would have managed it too if you hadn’t opened your big mouth,” Ryan jokes, and Shane can imagine Ryan bumping their shoulders and he needs that right now. He hasn’t felt Ryan close to him in so long it feels like an ache, like a phantom limb but it’s just Ryan who he needs around for some reason. He knows why he needs Ryan around so badly, but it’s easier to pretend that he’s completely in the dark, sometimes. Sometimes, he wishes he was. 

“Big head, big mouth, you’d think you had a size complex, Bergara,” Shane gives as he good as he gets, which becomes an innuendo in his head nearly immediately. He grins but doesn’t make the joke, not wanting to make it weird. 

“A size complex? You’d think  _ you’d  _ have something to say about size,” Ryan says, and Shane raises an eyebrow, forgetting for a moment that Ryan can’t see it. He should have called Ryan on Facetime, but it feels too late now. Maybe next time, should they have to have another late night phone call. There’s a lot of wanting to make some sort of joke, but he’s a good person, he’s an adult, he doesn’t make jokes like that. A flash of himself saying  _ A little seamen lubrication  _ to Ryan comes to mind, but that’s not the point. He doesn’t make those jokes while having weirdly intimate phone calls with his best friend while he lays in bed at very nearly 10 pm with a stupid grin on his face. 

“And what does that mean?” Shane asks, suggestion creeping into his tone without his express permission. 

“There’s a dick joke here that I’m not going to make because I’m a grown ass man, but it’s there,” Ryan relents, sounding delightfully embarrassed; Shane wonders what it says about himself that he finds it delightful. 

“Do you think about my dick often enough to generate jokes?” Shane teases, biting his lip. Ryan groans. 

“I - Fuck you, Shane,” Ryan stutters, and Shane’s never had the best of self control in the business. 

“If you want to,” he remarks, and tries not to actively facepalm. 

“I - What?” Ryan asks, his confusion obvious enough to make Shane imagine that cute little head tilt he sometimes does, with his eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. Imagining how Ryan looks is completely not the point. 

“Fuck, I didn’t mean - you don’t have to answer that. We can forget that ever happened,” Shane rushes, putting his hand on his forehead. He hears Ryan’s silence for the next few seconds, before his voice comes out shaking but clear. 

“What if I don’t want to forget that happened?” Ry asks, and Shane feels a shockwave go through his body. 

“Do you really want to start something that’s gonna have to wait til you get back from New York?” Shane asks, his tone more bitter than he intended, and he can practically feel the posturing Ryan is definitely doing from here. 

“If it’s with you? Hell yeah. It’s better than not starting it at all,” Ryan says, and Shane feels that shockwave come over him again. Ryan Bergara is already a trip and a half from three thousand miles away; Shane can’t imagine what he’s going to be like if they do anything like this up close. 

“I’m into you. I want to date you. And, well, other things, but mostly I want to date you first,” Shane admits, and it feels good to say it aloud, even if he admitted it to himself what feels like a lifetime ago. 

“Yeah, okay. I want to date you too,” Ryan says, his voice soft and fond again, and he sounds kinda sleepy. 

“I think it’s time for you to go to bed,” Shane suggests, and he hears the ruffle of Ryan’s blanket through the mic before Ryan actually speaks. 

“Mkay. Night, Shane. Love you,” Ryan signs off, and then he’s hanging up before Shane can reply and Shane is having a heart attack. He has to deconstruct an entire impending anxiety attack before he just decides to text Ryan instead, smiling dopily at Ryan’s profile picture in his phone. 

“Love you too,” he texts, and then he goes back to looking at the folder of pictures of them, smiling some more.  _ Package deal indeed.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a prompt @halfwheeze on tumblr, and I'll get to it when I can!


End file.
